This evening the Storefront for Art and Architecture opens an exhibition of industrial robots capable of building structures more complex and intricate than a human hand ever could. Next week in Chinatown, the robot R-O-B, created by Swiss architects Gramazio & Kohler, will start laying bricks next week for “Pike Loop,” an parabolic structure composed of more than seven thousand carefully stacked bricks. The construction, taking place along the Pike Street pedestrian median between Division Street and East Broadway, is estimated for completion by October 27th. Watch a video of the machine at work after the jump.

Looking like an ET decontamination chamber, the Spacebuster is an inflatable events space, German-engineered by Raumlabor, that the Storefront for Art and Architecture brought to New York for 10 consecutive nights of dinners, talks and film screenings. Already the translucent bubble has opened up at Gansevoort Plaza in the Meatpacking District, the Goethe Institute in the East Village and the American Can Factory in Red Hook. Tonight, Spacebuster inflates at the recently reopened Manhattan Bridge archway in Dumbo for an Iron Chef-style design competition, followed by a few more events through Sunday.

All photos by Alan Tansey